Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Was Great Great Great Great Grandma an Indian Princess?

I’ve done it again. Spent my day off sitting in front of the
computer instead of cleaning my kitchen, which I really need to do; I think I
saw a leftover in the back of the fridge move this morning. But no, I have been tracking George and Eva
Worden. Who are they you ask? Collateral relatives, the kind I wouldn’t
ordinarily spend this amount of time on while mutant leftovers are roaming my refrigerator
unchecked except… I found a picture of them on Ebay! Somehow it’s always the collateral relatives
whose photos show up, and always on the Worden side, why is that?

George and Eva Bartlett Worden

The Worden family is pretty well
documented, there are quite a few books and sourced trees online, and Silvester Worden, my
umpteenth great grandfather was a Revolutionary War Soldier. Apparently a spelling challenged one; he
really did spell his name “Silvester”, not the usual Sylvester. I know this because I have actually held his war
pension application in my hand, (what a rush), signed by himself in that unusual
way. There are some gaps in the trees,
mostly on the female side as usual and Silvester’s wife’s name is unknown. However, Silvester’s father was also a
Silvester, and then going back in time come a couple Peters, then Samuel Worden born 1646 in
Massachusetts. Samuel’s wife was
Hopestill Holley. Isn’t that a cute
name? It sounds like a children’s
cartoon character who might show up as a prize in a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

Part of the Worden family
remained in New England, but my line moved west to New York. Silvester took a few years but steadily moved
on til he came to Bristol, New York. See
the map at the right? It shows Worden
Hill in Bristol; that maze near the red arrow is Bristol Ski Resort. See, I told you my family owned it, and I
still want it back. Silvester and his
mystery wife had several children one named Silvester, (in some records, Squire), was born about 1793 and married
Pelina Carter. They begat another
Silvester in 1817, along with a Paul who was my 3rd great grandfather. The 1817 Silvester married Mary Culver and
had—you guessed it, another Silvester.
But, they also had a George in 1857, George of the Ebay photo, I told you
he was collateral.

The thing about collateral
relatives though, is their data is also the data of one’s direct
relatives. A 1948 news article about George-- "Worden, a descendant of the Seneca Indians of
Seneca Point on Canandaigua Lake, was born there, but as a little lad
came with his family to Bristol and there he has remained. When a youth
he thought he might like to live on a reservation but after a very short
trial returned to the rolling hills and valleys, the foothills of the
Alleghenies, in Bristol." Huh???????

George’s obituary in 1950 says, "His father was an Indian born on one of the reservations." Say again? I
have no idea what to make of this. The
Worden’s were Puritans from Lancashire, England; they were not Native
Americans. On the other hand, I have nothing
on Pelina Carter, wife of 1793 Silvester. Is it possible my 4th
great Grandmother was a Native American?
It’s conceivable that even if she married and left the reservation she
returned to her mother’s abode for the birth of her first child, (1817
Silvester), so George’s father would be half Indian anyway. Now you see why I have been tied to my
computer all morning, a new mystery to solve.

I’ve heard no family stories
about Native Americans among the Wordens, though a historian in Bristol Center
told me once there were undocumented rumors to that effect. Pelina, (sometimes called Paulina), Carter was born around 1796, and died before
the New York State census of 1855 was taken, too early for a death certificate
to have been issued. I found an online
tree claiming she was born in South Bristol, but it had no sources so I take it
with a grain of salt. Un-sourced family trees are one of my
pet peeves, and no, user submitted trees at OneWorldTree are not
sources, they are clues that need to be verified with real sources.

About Me

I am married and live here in the 'burbs outside Rochester with my husband and terriers Darby and Tallulah. While I work part time at a "day job" genealogy is my true pursuit. I can, and often do get lost in researching my ancestors for hours at a time, they and the times they lived in are an endless fascination.